Are you new to recruitment or have made many incorrect hiring choices in the past? It’s more important than ever to prepare for the screening phase then, especially the interview, which is high stakes for both the candidate and recruiter.
Remember: Choosing the wrong person or missing out on the right one is going to cost your organisation.
You don’t want to waste your resources in training someone up only to discover that their personality type or professionals skills aren’t suitable for the position. Picking an unqualified person may demoralise your current employees with the new hire’s poor work ethic or inexperience.
The interview is the defining moment when you will either add value or cost your company, based on your choice. Hence, you don’t want to ask generalised questions that won’t illicit information crucial to assessing an applicant’s personality type.
In other words, how you interview extroverts should be different from how you interview introverts.
You must be wondering how you can do just that. Well, if you’re getting ready to interview an extroverted candidate for a remote job, here are some tips on how to go about it more effectively.
Boost Energy
By nature, extroverts are outgoing, friendly and talkative. These are good traits to have for a virtual worker since they need to be proactive about communication. However, you’ll need to match your energy level to theirs if you want to effectively interview them.
You can do this by getting some caffeine (e.g. coffee) or going on a short walk outside before the call. Taking a 20-minute power nap is helpful for reducing stress too, so you’ll be able to greet the applicant with a smile than a cranky “good day”.
Prepare Questions
When you’re trying to fill a management or technical role, you likely have plenty of things you want to know related to job tasks. This means you have limited time to look into the personality of the applicant. Thus, maximise it by having the right questions.
Don’t waste your time asking, “do you like to work independently?” when you know how they’ll likely answer. Instead, go for “are you skilled in handling social situations?” or “do you make new friends easily?” or “do you prefer working in a group?”.
Be Charismatic
Perhaps you’re used to simply asking questions and receiving answers during interviews, but these don’t work for extroverts. They’ll prefer some back-and-forth banter with a few laughs sprinkled in. Meaning, don’t make your conversation fall into a boring Q&A session.
Check their resume or portfolio for interesting tidbits you may chat with them about, like being awarded Employee of the Month three times in a row. Share stories about how you joined the company too, if you feel comfortable with that. All of these give you more insight on their extracurricular activities.
Learn Specifics
Outside of their skills and experience, it’s useful to know about their Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as well. 16Personalities offers a free personality test which allows people to find out what their MBTI type is, among others. You may have them take the test prior to the interview itself.
An ESTJ or ESTP or ESFP is suited for being a sales representative while an ESFJ is better as a bookkeeper or accountant. Meanwhile, an ENFP or ENTP would make a great writer, marketer, or social scientist. An ENTJ would be perfect as a business executive or a manager.
Test Them
Find out how well they would perform should they be given the position. The easiest method is to ask them about a time when they felt challenged and how they handled the matter. If you can, enquire about an issue that’s common in your industry.
By hearing real-life examples of work problems and solutions, you will have a better grasp of how suitable the applicant is for the role. A short role play may be a great means to assess customer service skills along with the kind of impression the candidate might leave on a client.
Check Experience
Extroverts tend to do best when surrounded by people so remote work itself is a challenge for them. Ask if they’ve worked online in the past and how that worked out for them. If they enjoyed it, they’ll likely succeed in your remote work environment.
Those who are telecommuting for the first time may have trouble adjusting, especially as they have to deal with feelings of isolation and loneliness. Though you may apply measures to keep them in the loop, such as regular video calls, nothing beats face-to-face interactions for extroverts so take this into consideration.
Talk Culture
Someone who’s extroverted won’t have any problem talking about their feelings and thoughts, so use this to your advantage when interviewing them. How? Let them know how your company culture is different from those of other organisations.
Talk about any volunteer work that you might be doing or measures for boosting work-life balance. Then, ask if these are in line with their own interests.
Finding Extroverted Remote Candidates
For many a recruiter, personality plays a major role in determining whether an applicant is suitable for a vacant position or not. People are usually either extroverts or introverts, although there are some ambiverts who strike a balance between the two.
Whatever the case may be, each type needs to be interviewed in their own special way in order for the hiring manager to get crucial information about them and their potential. We hope that the tips we’ve shared are able to guide you throughout the interview process.
Now that you know how to effectively interview an extrovert, you might be wondering how you can find some in the first place. Well, Remote Workmate can handle that for you with our offshore staffing services. We list vacancies on our website, screen applicants, and endorse the best candidates.
